{"id":1754,"date":"2018-03-16T08:17:38","date_gmt":"2018-03-16T08:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/?p=1754"},"modified":"2018-03-16T08:17:38","modified_gmt":"2018-03-16T08:17:38","slug":"since-records-began","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/2018\/03\/16\/since-records-began\/","title":{"rendered":"Since records began"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m running a workshop for children at the Bournville BookFest tomorrow<\/a> and it will be my 510th public speaking gig since records began in late 2012.<\/p>\n

I think a lot about that phrase, \u201csince records began\u201d. Usually it\u2019s used to describe something incredibly serious like climate change or utterly trivial like, er, how Mars Bars have been shrinking since records began.<\/p>\n

Was there one day when everybody thought we should be making records? Or did they start with the big stuff and add in the trivial to seem busy and keep their jobs?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d say that my 510 is pretty trivial, if not to me, except I can beat it with something else I appear to be counting which even I find daft. I\u2019ve read thousands of scripts since records began but late last year I read a blog on Script Angel<\/a> that recommended reading one a day. And I was persuaded.<\/p>\n

Like most new year\u2019s resolutions, though, I did fall off the wagon. Just not in the usual direction. If I\u2019d stuck to reading one script per day then right now I should be on my 75th. <\/p>\n

After we\u2019ve spoken today, I\u2019m going to get a mug of tea and read my 203rd. <\/p>\n

I would like to share with you some lessons I\u2019ve learned from 509 performances (remember, tomorrow\u2019s is the 510th) and 202 scripts (remember, today\u2019s is the 203rd).<\/p>\n

But the only thing pressing on my mind is this small piece of advice. If you start watching a drama series on Netflix, finish it.<\/p>\n

I got deeply into The Good Wife on Netflix about two years ago but for some reason stopped. Something came up. Work. I went away. I don\u2019t know. But for some reason I didn\u2019t rush back to the next episode and now I\u2019m a little unclear how far through I got. I\u2019m pretty sure I had this break in the show\u2019s second season but it might be the third.<\/p>\n

Either way, in my 202 scripts so far this year, 7 of them were from this show. To be specific, I\u2019ve read the first 7 episodes of the series and each one has been superb. I\u2019ll carry on reading \u2013 the entire first season\u2019s scripts are online<\/a> \u2013 but I really wanted to watch the filmed and broadcast version of one of them.<\/p>\n

And I can\u2019t. <\/p>\n

Netflix UK has taken the whole show off.<\/p>\n

We live in a time when we have myriad choices of dramas to watch and it feels like everything that has ever existed is available on demand or even just on a whim, but it isn\u2019t. And you know that Netflix\u2019s decision is to do with rights, is to do with their license to broadcast it, but nobody outside those deals can predict what will be added and when it will be taken away.<\/p>\n

At least, nobody\u2019s figured out how to predict it. Since records began, anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m running a workshop for children at the Bournville BookFest tomorrow and it will be my 510th public speaking gig … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[178],"tags":[938,651,212,197,441,726,344,180],"class_list":["post-1754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-selfdistract","tag-netflix","tag-reading","tag-screenplays","tag-scripts","tag-scriptwriting","tag-the-good-wife","tag-workshops","tag-writing","has-featured-image"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/03\/2BBA77E3-2F62-4D1F-87F6-129A8518A877.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4chyI-si","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1754"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1757,"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754\/revisions\/1757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/williamgallagher.com\/selfdistract\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}